Saber
Saber was a heavyweight robot which competed in Season 1 of King of Bots. An improved version, Saber II, competed in the first season of This is Fighting Robots, also known unofficially as King of Bots 1.5. As one of the only robots in the first season to use a flipper weapon, Saber was able to defeat two British robots in succession; Vulcan in the first round, and The Grubs in the second round. It was ultimately knocked out of Season 1 by multibot Thunder and Lightning, although Saber II fought the same robot again in Season 1.5, being added to Sa Beining's team after flipping Wall Breaker over during the preliminary rumble. As part of the Yellow Team, Saber II was thrown out of the arena by Tánshè in its first main rumble, and was eliminated from the team at the end of the first round. The team name Excalibur (Curry Bar in direct translationhttps://www.facebook.com/saberkobrobot/videos/1777143429024921/) is also written on the team's shirts, maintaining the robot's theme of a sword weapon.The team consisted of team captain Xuan Yuan Wen Chen, his fellow classmate of the University of China, Zhang Ji Gang, and his father Xuan Yong Sheng. Versions of Saber Saber (King of Bots) Saber was one of the largest competitors in King of Bots, and was wedge-shaped in design. Its front wedges were attached to hinges, in order to be in contact with the floor at all times, and move when Saber is lifted up. Saber's weapon was a long, thin flipper, decorated with the design of a sword, representative of the mythological sword Excalibur. This flipper was powerful enough to reliably turn other robots over, with an air pressure of 3.5MPA, also throwing a barrel high in testing. Saber runs on a four-wheel drive, and intentionally has a high ground clearance at the rear, so that Saber can reverse away if another robot drives underneath it. Its armor is constructed from HDPE and PC, with wedges made out of NM450. Saber II (This is Fighting Robots) For This is Fighting Robots, a new version of Saber was built, named Saber II. The robot used a new shell with a slightly steeper wedge, and its armor was constructed from NM450 instead of HDPE. The working pressure of the cylinder powering Saber II's flipper was increased from 2.5mpa to 5.5mpa, dramatically increasing the power of the weapon, at the cost of a somewhat slow retraction time. The wedges at the front of Saber were now directly welded onto the robot to prevent them from falling off. While maintaining the four-wheel drive of the original Saber, the wheels of Saber II were much smaller. Etymology Saber is inspired by the Japanese video game and anime series Fate/stay Night, where a female character named Saber is the wielder of the Excalibur sword, which is held by Xuan Yuan Wen Chen in King of Bots. This inspiration is further enforced by the blue-and-white color scheme of Saber, and a reference to the series on the team's Facebook pagehttps://www.facebook.com/saberkobrobot/posts/1643152122424053, and the team name Excalibur is also derived from the same character. Robot History King of Bots (Season 1) In the first round, Saber fought the British robot Vulcan, built by a former champion of British TV show Robot Wars. Saber was in danger of missing the battle, as the team were frantically making repairs to the robot even while it was in the loading bay for the arena, but Saber was fixed within time for it to compete, albeit with a late entrance. As Vulcan was initially evasive in the start of the battle, Saber chased after it, and managed to drive under the back end of Vulcan to flip it over. Vulcan quickly self-righted, but Saber had taken an early lead. Both robots met in the center of the arena, and missed with their weapons. While backing away, Saber's wedges briefly buckled, allowing Vulcan to catch up to it, and Saber also expended more gas. At this stage, Saber was almost hit by Vulcan's axe, but the British robot drove onto a floor flipper, and was turned over. This caused one of Vulcan's wheels to fall out, so Saber became the more offensive machine, pushing Vulcan back and flipping it over. Although it self-righted, Saber's pursuit caused Vulcan to overturn itself by the power of its axe, and Saber continued to push it backwards. Saber flipped Vulcan back onto its wheel, but as the latter was effectively immobile, Saber paced itself to flip Vulcan into a corner of the arena, where the hammer threatened it. Saber left Vulcan idle as it struggled to self-right over the flame jet, and once Vulcan was counted out, Saber progressed to the next round, having won by knockout with just over thirty seconds left on the clock. In the next round, Saber fought another British entry, multibot The Grubs. While the bar spinners of The Grubs accelerated, the wedge-shaped Banger drove under the side of Saber and briefly trapped it, but Saber was able to escape before Mince and Chop could catch up. Mince waited too long atop the arena's circular saws, and Saber destabilized it, knocking it onto its own bar spinner, and this attack left Mince with limited mobility; Banger was also struggling for controlled movement. Saber also drove straight under Chop, and although the flipper weapon missed, Chop's weapon made contact with the floor and flung the whole robot into the air. Ann Gribble activated the smokescreen in front of the Excalibur team, but Saber still threw the hardly moving Mince into the Grinder, which fully immobilized it. Chop landed an attack but caused no damage, and Banger finally displayed movement again, but was nearly flipped over by Saber's drive. Saber then reversed over the wedge of Banger, and backed straight into Chop's spinner. Damaged, Chop fled, and erroneously hit its own partner in Banger, immobilizing it, and it was then tossed over by Saber. Two of the three robots within The Grubs were now immobile, so the overall machine was counted out. Saber was declared the winner of the battle, and The Grubs was eliminated in the second round. Saber then fought another clusterbot, Thunder and Lightning, which used their usual tactic of remaining stationary to power up their spinners, but Saber slammed into the blue half (Lightning) and turned it over with a charge. Lightning retaliated by hitting Saber's back plate with its disc, before proceeding to hug the side of Saber, limiting its movement. A big hit from Lightning threw Saber up into the air, and caused part of its top armor to break loose, only staying on via a rear hinge. Saber backed into the wall, while the red half (Thunder) attempted to use gyro-dancing to right itself, albeit without success, as Thunder became stuck on its left-hand side. While Thunder continued to attack the side of Saber, the larger machine was careful to avoid putting Thunder back on its wheels. Lightning drove into Thunder, but did not succeed in righting its partner, while Saber intentionally remained close to the stranded multibot to keep it immobile. Through its own gyro-dance, Lightning flipped itself over to collide with Thunder, but again did not knock it down until it finally drove into its partner and revived it. Saber missed a flip, and Lightning struck its wedge, causing damage. Lightning then drove into the Grinder, while Thunder again attempted to gyro-dance back onto its wheels. Lightning then delivered a direct blow to the side of Saber, creating a visible tear. With an aggressive charge, Saber turned Thunder back onto its neutral position. Saber missed its next flip, and neither robot attacked each other for a period, with Saber driving over the floor rods, and Thunder eventually landing a small hit. After Lightning also drove over the rods, it struck the front wedge panel of Saber and damaged it, pushing the heavyweight robot across the arena. Saber also drove into the Grinder while trying to lead Lightning into it. Thunder briefly stopped moving, but Lightning was able to rip off Saber's loose wedge panel entirely. Saber focused its efforts on the more active Lightning, while Thunder remained passive, and Saber rammed Lightning into the wall. Thunder managed a small attack, driving under the wedge of Saber, but without causing damage. Saber fought Lightning atop the flame jets, but Thunder asserted itself at the right moment to rip away Saber's other front wedge panel, leaving it with only the flipper at the front. Thunder started to dominate, hitting Saber's back end before driving under its front, while Saber's balance was too upset for it to drive under Thunder properly. Towards the end of the battle, Thunder hit the back of Saber, and Lightning attacked the side one more time, finishing with a big hit to Saber's front. The battle went to a Judges' decision, which went in favour of Thunder and Lightning, eliminating Saber at this stage. Saber also fought in a Tag Team battle alongside Greedy Snake, battling Tánshè as well as facing its first opponent Vulcan for the second time. While the four robots gathered, a sandwiched Saber fired its flipper at thin air. Vulcan capitalized by striking the side of Saber, barely missing the main body. In this time, Tánshè launched Greedy Snake into the plexiglass wall, and then flipped Saber in the same manner. In doing so, Tánshè exposed its back end to Greedy Snake, which picked it up and held it aloft. While Greedy Snake held Tánshè up, Vulcan fought a private battle with Saber, until Greedy Snake turned Tánshè over and released it, forcing Tánshè to self-right powerfully. Vulcan pressed into the back of Saber, but missed with its axe blow. Tánshè then caught Saber from behind and threw it over, where it slid towards the wall. Greedy Snake charged in to assist it, but Tánshè and Vulcan both trapped the Chinese team there. Vulcan landed two axe blows on the chassis of Saber, while Snake once again grabbed Tánshè, prompting Vulcan to pound the top of Greedy Snake. Saber desperately tried to escape, but the spikes along the wall were holding the robot in place. Greedy Snake was able to pick up Tánshè and turn it over, but Vulcan continually prevented Saber's self-righting by trapping it under the spikes. Vulcan changed targets and pinned Greedy Snake against the arena wall, so Saber struggled its way out of its current position, although this allowed Tánshè to launch it into the corner of the arena. From there, Tánshè flipped Saber onto the arena wall, under the hammer, before releasing it from the wall in a sportsmanlike move. While Tánshè flipped Saber again, Vulcan slammed into Greedy Snake, and the Chinese robot responded by driving it across the arena, towards the Grinder. Tánshè was still hounding Saber in the corner of the arena, but Saber eventually escaped, and Tánshè drove onto the floor flipper, which threw it over. In a head-to-head collision, Saber's wedge breached Tánshè's, but Tánshè pinned Saber against the wall, with Greedy Snake also making the same move on Vulcan. Saber lightly flicked Tánshè up, but Tánshè then threw Greedy Snake into the air powerfully. All four robots bumped into one another, until Tánshè threw Saber over, this time leaving it idle, as Saber lacked the power to self-right. In the final ten seconds, Greedy Snake held an inverted Tánshè against the arena floor, but the battle timer elapsed with Saber having been immobile for roughly the duration of the ten seconds, and the battle was sent to a Judges' decision. Despite a strong performance from Greedy Snake, the immobility of Saber at the very end of the battle proved costly, and the Judges awarded the win to Tánshè and Vulcan. This is Fighting Robots (Season 1.5) Saber II competed in This is Fighting Robots, although it was not chosen by any celebrities in their initial selection process, requiring Saber II to fight in a preliminary rumble, fighting for its selection. There it fought Blue and Wall Breaker, and also faced Thunder and Lightning for the second time. At the beginning of the match, Wall Breaker drove up the wedge of Saber II, but reversed away, causing Saber II to fire at the air. Wall Breaker fired its flamethrower while Saber II mistimed another flip, and took an initial backseat approach to the battle. Thunder became stuck under Blue, and Wall Breaker attempted to grab the smaller multibot. However, this allowed Saber II to drive under Wall Breaker and toss it across the arena. This attack impressed Sa Beining, and Saber II became the first robot in the fight to be selected for a celebrity team. Although Wall Breaker landed on its wheels, Saber II followed this up with a flip which turned Blue and Wall Breaker over with a single attack. Although Saber II was axed by Blue at the end of the battle, it had already qualified for the main bracket, as a result of its new celebrity captain's decision. In the second main rumble of the competition, Sa Beining was required to choose his robot first, having just won the previous rumble. Beining chose Saber II, and Zhang Yishan, fearing Saber II, elected not to compete in the battle. The remaining two celebrities sent in ORBY Blade and Tánshè. Sa Beining stood by the Excalibur team, wielding their sword in support of Saber II. Fearing the spinning blade of ORBY Blade, Saber II charged straight into the South Korean machine to deflect it, but fired its flipper at no visible target, forcing Saber II to retreat. Saber II next fired its flipper in the vicinity of Tánshè, but again missed, and spent a long period retracting its flipper. During this time, Tánshè collected ORBY Blade and threw it out of the arena. Saber II reversed away from Tánshè, but was pushed along the wall while on top of Tánshè's wedge. Saber II broke free, but could not flee from the quicker Tánshè machine, which pressured Saber II towards the opposite corner of the arena. Tánshè lunged Saber II into the air, and it landed on the wall in the corner of the arena for a second immediate knockout. At the end of the first round, Sa Beining had to eliminate one robot from his team, out of those that had already fought. To the surprise of the roboteers in attendance, who were expecting Golden Hoops to be eliminated, Saber II was cut from the yellow team, and was eliminated from the competition as a result. Results |} |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 2 *Losses: 3 NOTE: Saber's preliminary rumble in Season 1.5 is not considered a win or a loss. Series Record Outside King of Bots Poison.jpg|Poison 1 Poison 2.jpg|Poison 2 Poison 3.jpg|Poison 3 Excalibur crusher.jpg|The team's new featherweight crusher design Mini Saber.jpg|Saber-X Aside from Saber, the Excalibur team have experience in building featherweight robots. The team have built three versions of a featherweight named Poison, all of which were armed with a vertical spinner. The third version, Poison 3, featured a much larger disc compared to the small spinners of Poison 1 and Poison 2, with its 270mm weapon being driven be a 3KW brushless motor, for a top speed of 4000rpm. The robot was driven by two 775 motors, and featured a front 3mm titanium wedge. At the featherweight division of Fighting My Bots, it defeated Dust Alchemist and Killer in the first two rounds. The Excalibur team have also conceptualized a new featherweight design, armed with a crusher. The team have also created Saber-X (originally Mini-Saber), a featherweight armed with a broad full-pressure flipper. It competed at the King of Bots Featherweight Championship held in the United Kingdom at the gaming festival Insomnia, and won its opening melee against Rocket and Broadax. Trivia *Team captain Xuan Yuan Wen Chen held his own replica sword in promotional shots, and his entrance to the arena. This replica was based on the game series Fate/stay Night, just like the robot Saber. **To reinforce the anime and video game-inspired theme behind Saber, Japanese anime characters also appeared frequently in Xuan Yuan Wen Chen's builder bio. References External Links *Saber- King of Bots Facebook page Category:King of Bots competitors Category:Season 1 competitors Category:This is Fighting Robots competitors Category:Season 1.5 competitors Category:Chinese Robots Category:Robots from Shanxi Category:Robots with rear-hinged flippers Category:Robots with names based on film and television Category:Robots with an equal amount of Wins and Losses Category:Tag Team Competitors